Baton Rouge, LA

[caravanman]

I always enjoy hearing Janice Joplin's version of "Bobby McGee".

It has the lines "Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train

When I's feelin' near as faded as my jeans..."

Interested to know when the Baton Rouge station closed, if it ever existed, or is this just "poetic licence" ?

 

[Cal H]

There is freight traffic through BR, so surely there used to be passenger service.

Edit - just looked on Wiki and yes they sure did have passenger service and a station that served the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley (Y&MV) RR - later the Illinois Central RR. BR was a stop on the run from Memphis, TN to New Orleans. The depot is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and now houses the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.
Interesting - I will put this on my list of places to see the next time I go through BR, along with the state capitol.

 

[cassie225]

I have been to the La Art and Science Museum and did not know this piece of History. Thank you so much. Wow- I’m gonna look at those train tracks in the street very differently. I live in Baton Rouge. Not a native- but I really need to explore my own city. We have railroad tracks on Government Street also but I guess those are bittersweet since a young lady was murdered in her car there one night as a train was on the tracks.So sad

 

[Cal H]

@cassie225 - We enjoyed a day in BR a couple years ago, I wanted to see how tailgating at a Tigers game compared. Had a great day of it! But it was a Saturday so we couldn’t do the Capitol.
A couple pics of the museum would be appreciated, the one pic in the wiki page looks real nice, with the Y&MV across the top.

 

[George Harris]

There was also a Kansas City Southern station that hosted two trains each way between Kansas City and New Orleans up until the late 19960's. Trains ran Kansas City - Texarkana - Shreveport - Alexandria LA - Baton Rouge - New Orleans. Through there sometime in the 1980's, and found the station location. Foundation only remaining. This part of KCS was the Louisiana and Arkansas.

The Illinois Central / Yazoo and Mississippi Valley station was in use until sometime in the early to mid 1960's, but trains north thereof to Y&MV points were gone somewhere before the mid 1950's. The remaining trains were Missouri Pacific's Gulf Coast Lines trains between Houston and New Orleans that ran on ICRR tracks between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

 

[danasgoodstuff]

If they was busted flat, they might well have been waiting for a freight train to hop.

 

[caravanman]

If they was busted flat, they might well have been waiting for a freight train to hop.

Indeed, it seems they thumbed a ride with a truck after all, so you might well be right.

 

[Asher]

I always enjoy hearing Janice Joplin's version of "Bobby McGee".

It has the lines "Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train

When I's feelin' near as faded as my jeans..."

Interested to know when the Baton Rouge station closed, if it ever existed, or is this just "poetic licence" ?

Don’t know about Baton Rouge and don’t know where the windshield wipers were slapping, I know somewhere near Salinas she let him slip away. Could have been on a train.